Travel Day #2

Jen visits València!

Buenos días from València, Spain. Spain (along with Italy) is one of my favorite vacation destinations. The art, food, and scenery are unbeatable; the weather in spring and fall is delightful. Moreover, it is a terrific locale to see overlapping layers of culture over two millennia (Roman, Visigoth, Catholic, Islamic, Jewish). It even holds lessons about dictatorship and the re-emergence of democracy.

Having visited many other Spanish cities (Barcelona, Madrid, Seville, Granada, Cordoba) there are a few spots we have not been able to get to. This trip will pick up three of them.

I started out today the way I usually do in a city I have not visited…with a guided walking tour. No matter how much you prepare in advance, there is nothing like walking through the streets to get your bearings and a sense of geography, scope out dining spots, and add new things to your itinerary.

We like private guides (which are very affordable through travel providers like Aviator, Expedia, etc., or at the local city tourist center). Occasionally, you’ll find a guide so spectacular that you will come back to him or her on subsequent trips, booking directly without going through the travel provider. (We have a favorite guide in Italy!)

To get the full breadth of a city, offerings beyond standard city tours can be fascinating experiences. Tours of Jewish neighborhoods/history, specialized architecture tours, and even pub crawls add to the richness of your experience.

And that brings me to planning your vacation days. If, like me, you aim to get the most out of each day, a larger breakfast can sustain you until early afternoon. That gives you a stretch of time to sightsee without interruption. A later, quick lunch (museum cafes are often excellent) can help you refuel and rest, leaving you with a few hours before sites close for the day. By late afternoon, you eventually get brain tired and just plain…tired. Stopping at a café to people-watch and get a snack helps to refuel. (Alternatively, try a change of pace like shopping—my go-to activity when I’ve reached my museum/city sites fill for the day.) By 6 p.m. or so, a quick nap or down-time reading at the hotel is usually a good idea. That means you’ll likely wind up eating no earlier than 8 p.m., which is what locals do. (In Spain and Italy, as is generally known, eating at 9 p.m. or later is very common.)

If you’re traveling at that pace, it’s nice to intersperse intense city days with a side trip to a nearby city or region. You can either book a guide in your town of destination or arrange one from where you are staying and travel by car/bus with the guide. I prefer the meet-the-guide-there option, which is often cheaper, gets you a truly local guide, and affords you time to travel there by train.

Do NOT buy train tickets online ahead of time. The ticket machines at the stations often don’t recognize online tickets, so you’ll most likely suffer inconvenience and wind up going to the ticket window/office. (You should look at train times to see the frequency and figure out when you want to start the tour at the destination.) Kiosks are idiot-proof and convenient. Incidentally, train stations are frequently gorgeous sites in and of themselves.

Yes, I think carefully in advance about each location (e.g., Monday is a city tour and a museum or two; Tuesday is a side trip). You can still leave days for new finds, things you couldn’t get to earlier, etc.

For years, I never really thought about evening entertainment, but that is part of the great travel experience as well. Again, you can research online to find concerts, dance performances, opera, plays, etc. State subsidies make many performances very reasonable. But in most European cities, there are also marvelous performances in churches, synagogues, and outdoor squares that are cheap or free and require no advance booking. (As an aside, I LOVE European soccer, so I generally get seats online before departing.) When you plan an evening event, you’ll get more out of your day and get to see a lot of locals. (You can eat afterward if on the late-night dinner schedule, or grab something before and enjoy a light meal after.)

Aside from famous, Michelin-starred restaurants (which I very rarely frequent because superb food is available throughout the city), finding restaurants as you go through the day is half the fun. Crowded places with people who look like locals, which are off the main street/square and feature menus that do NOT look like they serve every dish known to mankind are often the best. (If you find a terrific place, you can always go back for another meal.)

Food is generally higher quality and lower priced than in the U.S. And since big refrigerator trucks hauling produce hundreds of miles are less common outside of the U.S., produce is usually fresher. (Tomatoes, for example, are often so fabulous in southern Europe that I have trouble eating them for a while when I get back to states.) While we are on the topic of food, in most places I have an inviolate rule: At least one gelato a day. (The flavors and consistency are to die for.)

What about tipping? Always tip the guide and the hotel maid. However, there is a hefty service fee built into the restaurant tab, and servers are paid decently. That means you don’t need to tip unless there is something acrobatically stunning about the service. It might feel “weird” at first, but that really is the custom in most countries.

It’s time for the walking tour. I will let you know what I find in Valencia. Keep an eye out for travel reports in the days ahead—and perhaps a sprinkling of the usual policy and politics for seasoning.